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This is the third volume of essays by actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Thirteen actors describe the Shakespearean roles they played in productions between 1987 and 1991. The plays covered include Hamlet, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, and important theatrical rarities such as Cymbeline, Titus Andronicus, King John, and the Henry VI plays in the Royal Shakespeare Company's highly successful adaptation retitled The Plantagenets. ... Read more

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Lexington, Kentucky, has been calledthe cradle of the legitimate theatre west of the Appalachianssince the opening of its first theatre in 1808. Not long after that opening, a fledgling resident acting company presented Macbeth, the town s first professional production of a Shakespearean play. Since then, the local and traveling stars committed to drama drove Lexington s live theatrical glamour to thrive impressively into the twentieth century.

Many of the actors who performed in Lexington in the plays of Shakespeare have been forgotten, but their vivid personalities and devotion to their art were once an integral part of American popular culture. The history of their careers and their lives is an important part of theatre history, of Kentucky history, and of American history. This study presents detailed accounts of individual actors in the order of their first appearances in Lexington.

Early chapters explore the range of exposure to Shakespeare's plays and players experienced by the town of Lexington and investigate the cultural climate that affected and was affected by that experience. Because Lexington s theatrical history provides a template for what so many mid-American towns experienced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a section of the book explores how hundreds of American cities connected by the early turnpikes and railroads constituted a community of theatre towns that cherished Shakespeare as a keystone of American culture. Remaining chapters are devoted to the lives and careers of the inspiring performers who brought Shakespeare's words to life over the centuries. Reviews published in Lexington, supplemented with details from newspapers of New York and other cities, have provided source material. ... Read more

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This is believed to be the first book of its kind. Twelve distinguished actors were asked to write about the preparation and performance of a Shakespeare role they had played in a production with the Royal Shakespeare Company. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Perfect doorway into Shakepeare's plays!
Reading Actors' descriptions of their approaches toShakespeare's characters is a fantastic way of accessing the material.

What these books provide, is insight into how an actor thought of playing a certain role but didn't, how they played off of other characters, which characters they felt "drove the play," and so much more in the way of detail. They discuss their own processes, directors, fellow actors, different adaptations, etc.

I found that this approach truly makes certain of Shakespeare's characters more accessible. An actor helps to break the code of the character and bring you into the material, which is such a gift, and you can't watch a play at your leisure over and over again the way you can a film, so books like these can help bridge a gap.

Most of the essays written are interesting to read regardless of whether you have a particular interest in a certain play or not. I can imagine that an acting student would get a tremendous amount from these books, as they might from having private conversations or lessons with accomplished stage actors. ... Read more

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This book interprets Renaissance plays, chiefly Shakespearean, through the medium of the theatre. From the staging of Macbeth at the Globe in 1606, through productions of The Duchess of Malfi in the twentieth century, to principles of theatrical criticism, it examines the play from the view-points of playwright, actor, director, audience, and critic. It represents the recent shift in dramatic criticism from the literary analysis of the text to the assessment of the play in performance. Although the stuyd of dramatic productions here has historical and comparative aspects, the emphasis is on enduring problems and solutions. The contributors are distinguished scholars, critics, and theatre people from both sides of the Atlantic. Their essays are a tribute to the pioneering work of Arthur Colby Sprague, the leading authority on Shakespeare in the theatre. Their theme has been summed up by a pre-publication reviewer as "what A.C. Sprague stands for, bringing the testimony of actual production to bear on the understanding of a playwright's vision. Following an introduction by the editor, the book's sixteen essays are presented in four parts: The Playwright and Audience, The Playwright and Performance, and the Playwright and Theatre. Students of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as the reader interested in drama and theatre, will find here an interesting range and depth of interpretation. ... Read more

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acting and action in shakesperean tragedy ... Read more

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The last decade has witnessed a rapid increase in serious research on ‘Shakespeare in Asia’, yet most readers of the many new monographs and journal articles on the subject have hitherto not enjoyed access to the plays discussed because they have not been readily available in English. Indeed, an authoritative collection of Asian Shakespeares has been long and eagerly awaited by many scholars and critics. This five-volume collection answers that need. It brings together newly prepared English translations of twenty-five Shakespearean adaptations and reworkings. Supplementing these new—previously unpublished—translations, each volume includes a separate critical introduction prepared for this collection by an expert volume editor, together with annotations. One or two photographs accompany each introduction to support and illustrate the discussion.

The collection showcases the variety and multiplicity of Shakespeares reinvented in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. It provides the first substantial and essential resource of Shakespearean adaptations in East Asia for scholars and critics, as well as graduate students interested in investigating Shakespearean re-creations in the region. Along with the volume introductions, each adaptation is also prefaced by a succinct introduction with full consideration given to overview, performance history, and analysis. Hence, the collection will be a definitive entry point for all students and researchers interested in Asian theatres as well as Shakespeares in Asia.

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Time and again, early modern plays show people at work: shoemaking, grave-digging, and professional acting are just some of the forms of labour that theatregoers could have seen depicted on stage in 1599 and 1600. Tom Rutter demonstrates how such representations were shaped by the theatre's own problematic relationship with work: actors earned their living through playing, a practice that many considered idle and illegitimate, while plays were criticised for enticing servants and apprentices from their labour. As a result, the drama of Shakespeare's time became the focal point of wider debates over what counted as work, who should have to do it, and how it should be valued. This book describes changing beliefs about work in the sixteenth century, and shows how new ways of conceptualising the work of the governing class inform Shakespeare's histories. It identifies important contrasts between plays written for the adult and child repertories. ... Read more

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Shakespeare was a master of language, his sayings have become a part of everyday speech, and his plays endure, in part, because of the beauty of his verse. His language, however, poses special difficulties for modern actors because many of his words seem unusual or difficult to pronounce, he employs rhetorical devices throughout his works, and he carefully uses rhythm to convey sense. This reference is a practical guide to Shakespeare's language. ... Read more

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This is the fourth volume of essays by actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Twelve actors, including Jane Lapotaire, Julian Glover and Sir Derek Jacobi describe the Shakespearian roles they played in productions between 1992 and 1997. The plays covered include The Merchant of Venice, Love's Labour's Lost, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, and Romeo and Juliet, among others. Emphasis among the comedies is on those notoriously difficult "clown" roles. ... Read more

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Farah Karim-Cooper examines women's cosmetic practices and the staging of painted beauty in Shakespearean and Renaissance drama. The only in-depth study of cosmetic culture and its visual representation on the Renaissance stage, this volume details the ingredients, methods, and materials used in manufacturing cosmetics, including numerous cosmetic recipes, and how the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries dramatize the cultural preoccupation with cosmetics. Karim-Cooper identifies a 'culture of cosmetics' and describes its visualization on the Renaissance stage. She also investigates cosmetic recipes and their relationship to drama and to the construction of early modern identities.

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Look to the Lady examines the careers, talents, and styles of three women who were acknowledged, each in her time, as the greatest interpreter of Shakespeare's heroines: Sarah Siddons, Ellen Terry, and Judi Dench. In the eighteenth century, Siddons was celebrated for playing Shakespeare's tragic women in a heroic, even "sublime" style. Terry, who reigned over the late nineteenth-century stage, had a softer, "beautiful" style and is remembered best for her roles in Shakespeare's comedies. Dench, who still performs, has amassed a more varied résumé than either of her predecessors. Not only has Dench had the advantages of variety offered by film and television roles, says Russ McDonald, but she may also command a greater artistic range.

One of McDonald's interests is in the ways Shakespearean performance influences, and is influenced by, critical and popular appraisal of the works. He also discerns parallels and distinctions in the approaches of Siddons, Terry, and Dench to the vocation of acting—specifically to Lady Macbeth and other great Shakespearean roles.Look to the Lady also helps us to better understand the place and function of the theater in British national life and what constitutes "great acting" at various historical moments. Further, by examining across time the varied attitudes of actors, critics, and audiences toward Shakespearean texts and roles, McDonald offers insights into how external forces combine with the inherent appeal of the plays to keep them fresh and new centuries after they were first written and performed.

Throughout, McDonald blends learned commentary on the history and culture of the stage with entertaining details about the appearance, personality, genealogy, and private life of each actor. Including some rarely seen images and drawing on previously untapped reviews and anecdotes, this is a lively introduction to the burgeoning field of performance criticism. ... Read more